ATI and nVidia settle into living room
Rivals unveil products as they climb aboard MS's Media PC bandwagon
Graphics rivals nVidia and ATI have been quick to jump aboard the latest Media PC push from Microsoft, announcing products geared towards the growing 'living-room' PC market.
The announcements come hot on the heels of Microsoft taking the wraps off Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE) 2005.
ATI announced a raft of solutions aimed at all levels of Media Center PCs, covering graphics and video processors, software technologies, high-definition television cards (HDTV), integrated platform solutions, mobile graphics chips and Media Center Extender solutions for MCE 2005.
The company also announced dedicated support for system builders planning to enter the Media Center PC arena. Earlier this month, Microsoft pitched the new MCE to more than 120 UK, Irish and European system builders at Gartner's System Builder Summit in Dublin.
"Microsoft has created the quintessential digital entertainment hub with Windows XP Media Center 2005," said Rick Bergman, general manager of PC business unit at ATI.
"We have the broadest breadth of product support for Media Center Edition 2005: amazing graphics, high-quality video, HDTV products and Media Center Extender support."
Kevin Unangst, director of Windows consumer marketing at Microsoft, said: "We're thrilled to see the breadth of ATI's support for Media Center Edition 2005 across its product line. ATI's hardware and software technology and MCE 2005 gives system integrators and consumers the ability to experience more digital entertainment than ever before."
NVidia announced its support for the new operating system with a range of targeted offerings.
The Media Center suite is made up of a dedicated video processor in the GeForce 6 graphics processor, PC TV tuner cards, DVD decoder and the nVidia ForceWare drivers, which are designed to make it easy to set up video and audio settings from a Media Center PC remote control.
NVidia also announced it will be working closely with system builders.
"MCE 2005 is designed to make the networked digital home a reality," said Dan Vivoli, executive vice-president of marketing at nVidia. "Media Center PCs enhanced with nVidia hardware and software solutions provide end-users with no-compromise video quality that rivals that of traditional home theatres."